Minutewomen Advance at Brown Bear Basketball Classic

The Massachusetts women's basketball team's 53-51 victory over Long Island on Saturday showed the importance of a complete roster.

The Minutewomen (4-4) faced a bigger than usual lineup in the Black Birds (4-4), so sophomore forward Stephanie Lawrence (6-foot-1) got the start over redshirt sophomore guard Diatiema HIll (5-foot-8). In 19 minutes of play, Lawrence had four points and two offensive rebounds.

"[UMass coach Marnie Dacko] wanted to make the switch in the post because on film [Long Island] seemed a lot bigger than they were," sophomore forward Teya Wright said of having Lawrence alongside her in the starting-five. "Stephanie's a good player, she contributes a lot to our team."

While Hill was not in the starting lineup, her 25 minutes were some of the most important from the second unit. She had eight points and a steal that led to a Nicole Jones layup. In addition to those two points -- her only points of the game -- Jones had the only two UMass blocks in the entire game.

Senior guard Stefanie Gerardot was the leading scorer for the Minutewomen, finishing the game with 16 points, two rebounds, three assists and one steal in 36 minutes of play. She was the only Minutewoman to score in double-figures, while the Black Birds had two players to accomplish this, one of which was freshman forward Ashley Palmer (17 points, 3 assists, 1 steal).

Palmer was Wright's assingment and the two battled all game. While Palmer caused Wright to commit three fouls in 15 minutes of play, it was the Minutewoman post player who finished the game.

With just over a minute left in the game, the score was 51-51 after a Gerardot jumper and subsequent missed foul shot, Chelsi Johnson had the ball for the Black Birds and she botched a jumper that senior guard Sakera Young snatched for UMass before she called a 30-second timeout.

When the game resumed, Young took an ill-advised 3-point attempt, which fortunately was taken in by Wright for her eighth rebound of the game.

A Jade Brown foul sent Wright to the foul line with 12 seconds left in the game. She made both free-throws and hustled back to the other end of the court to ensure the eventual miss by Palmer, which sealed the victory for UMass.

"All in all I think it was an ugly game but we were still in it," Dacko said of the soft but effective play of UMass. "But at the two-minute mark, Teya did a great job [to close out the game]."